Boom! Our 50 on Fire list is here.
Today, we’re officially announcing the 50 people and companies that are crushing it in Austin. Over the next few weeks, we’ll spotlight a few of these companies in stories and in our newsletter, The Beat.
We invite you and your team, friends, family – and anyone that’s interested or invested in Austin startups – to join us at a big party stocked with tasty bites, cocktails, craft beer and wine at Capital Factory in downtown Austin on Oct. 11. At the event, we’ll announce the 10 people and companies, one from each category, that a panel of esteemed judges have selected as the Inno Blazer winners (AKA category winners). Get tickets here.
By unveiling the 50 now and gathering everyone at the event, we allow for the community as a whole to celebrate those that are driving Austin forward.
So, now to the most important question. What makes a company or individual on fire? We’re looking at startups that have had a banner year — people and companies with new funding, recent product launches, hot hires and innovative approaches to solving problems.
Now, let’s get to the list…
B2B Technology and Software
Autumn Manning of YouEarnedIt – Autumn Manning has led YouEarnedIt on an upward trajectory since she co-founded the startup in 2013. Last year, Manning raised a $6.5 million Series A, doubled headcount and has helped the company be recognized for several awards, including being named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s best company cultures list and, more recently, being named to the Austin Business Journal’s Profiles in Power awards, honoring influential women leaders in Austin. Most recently, YouEarnedIt scored a major private equity deal with Vista Equity Partners and acquired Chicago-based HighGround.
Arlo Gilbert – Serial entrepreneur and angel investor Arlo Gilbert founded MetaSaaS last year, and, in short time, he caught the eye of Mark Cuban, who led a $1.5 million seed round for the startup. Soon after, it was already being eyed by private equity firms as a potential portfolio addition. Then, in May, Flexera Software scooped the company up. It was Gilbert’s second exit, and, already, he is onto a new stealth mode project called Osano, which is Italian for “be daring.” He calls it his most ambitious venture to date. Meanwhile, Gilbert has been generous with his insights, sharing revealing founder and investor insights on his blog.
BigCommerce – BigCommerce has had a remarkable 2018. It landed one of the largest investments in town — a $64 million commitment from Goldman Sachs. (So far, it is 2018’s largest investment outside of WP Engine’s $250 million round.) The company, which is based in Austin, Australia and San Francisco, has now raised more than $200 million since its 2009 founding. Its annual revenue, while private, has been said to be around $100 million. Now the company is considering the possibility of an IPO or some other exit.
OJO Labs – Real estate tech is one of 2018’s hottest trends. After years of relative stagnation, the home buying and selling industry has gotten a jolt of tech. OJO Labs is among the companies leading the way with its AI-powered personal assistant that helps homebuyers understand and deal with the process at their own pace. Led by Yodle co-founder John Berkowitz, the company raised a $20.5 million Series B led by strategic investors, including Realogy Holdings Corp., Royal Bank of Canada, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures and ServiceMaster. Austin’s LiveOak Venture Partners and Silverton Partners also helped fuel the funding. It also grew from about 69 employees at the start of the year to 162 as of last month.
SpyCloud – As IT teams worldwide are well aware, hackers are everywhere, looking for leverage, valuable data and ransoms. And that — along with a multitude of other big time hacks — makes cybersecurity one of the hottest industries in tech. SpyCloud, a startup that emerged from stealth mode last year, developed valuable tools to prevent account takeovers by monitoring for security threats and exploring what’s being discussed among hackers on the dark web, private forms and elsewhere. Last March, the company announced a $5 million Series A from Austin-based Silverton Partners and Santa Monica, California-based March Capital Partners. Meanwhile, it made a key hire, adding former NSS Labs CFO Jennifer Parker-Snider onto the team as CFO.
CPG
BeatBox Beverages – If you’ve been tubing down in San Marcos, you’ve probably seen how popular BeatBox Beverages’ wine-based drinks are with college students. But the startup founded out of the University of Texas has grown far beyond that with distribution in H-E-B, Specs, Twin Liquors, 7-Eleven and others. It has also attracted some big name investors, which started when Mark Cuban put $1 million into the business on “Shark Tank” back in 2014. Flash forward, and BeatBox raised a $4.7M Series A earlier this year with investors including including Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman; DJs GTA, Party Favor, Cut Snake; and TV personality and entrepreneur Rob Dyrdek. The company also hired Austin Eastciders founder Mark King, along with co-founders from Deep Eddy Vodka and others to help guide the company’s next phase of growth.
Chip McElroy of LiveOak Brewing – Chip McElroy has been brewing craft beer for 22 years, and he’s one of the brewers who has helped change Texas distribution laws — giving brewers statewide new opportunities. The former University of Texas chemistry student has also made a science out of the art of beer. McElroy has unearthed several old school beers from Germany. Most recently, he has brought an indigenous Polish beer that went extinct — only to be brought back by McElroy and his team.
Genevieve Gilbreath – Gilbreath took over Austin’s SKU accelerator program around the start of the year. Since then, she has been both further developing Austin’s program and sharing insights with consumer goods leaders in other areas that want to replicate SKU’s successful mentorship and accelerator program. Meanwhile, six new startups flowed through the program. Next up, Gilbreath is developing new avenues to help CPG startups get the funding they need
HeatGenie – HeatGenie, a self-heating beverage container, has been in the works for years. But the startup really got off the ground this year with a $6 million round led by San Francisco-based ARTIS Labs. HeatGenie, founded by Brendan Coffey in 2008 and led by CEO Mark Turner, previously raised about $3.2 million. Its investors have included the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and the Central Texas Angel Network and former Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb, who is now on HeatGenie’s board of directors.
101 Commerce – After emerging from stealth mode earlier this year, 101 Commerce raised $12 million-plus (the exact amount not disclosed) to acquire or invest in Amazon FBA businesses. Founder Richard Jalichandra was previously CEO of BodyBuilding.com, iSocket, MapMyFitness and Technorati. And he has rallied high-profile investors, including Austin’s Next Coast Ventures, 3L Capital, HomeAway founder Brian Sharples and RetailMeNot founder Cotter Cunningham.
Crypto/Blockchain
ALTR – ALTR surfaced publicly earlier this year after a few years of behind the curtain development. It has raised $15 million from a variety of sources, including Ronin Capital CEO John Stafford III. The company’s platform is built on what it calls ALTRchain, which is optimized for secure data access and storage. The data is decentralized and fragmented in a private blockchain without any encryption keys or decoders. It also lets a company’s security team, as well as non-technical CEOs, monitor and control data access.
Kilroy Blockchain – Karen Kilroy, founder and CEO of Kilroy Blockchain, is on a bold mission to use blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to improve the world. Last year, the startup developed a phone app, Riley, to help people with vision impairments get feedback to help understand the world around them. While the company has been bootstrapped, it has strong validation points, including winning IBM’s Watson Build competition in the North America category. The startup is also on the founding members of the Austin Blockchain Collective.
Multicoin Capital – When it comes to crypto in Austin, it doesn’t get much bigger than Multicoin Capital. In March this year, the crypto hedge fund announced it is in the process of raising $250 million — it has $75 million-plus in assets under management. And it already has backing from Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz; David Sacks, co-founder of Craft Ventures and former CEO of Yammer and Zenefits; as well as Union Square Ventures. The list goes on. Multicoin’s founders, Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain, have also become go-to experts in the crypto world.
Series X – With backing by Shasta Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Capital Factory and others, it would seem Series X CEO Dave Hendricks has the wind at his back. The startup’s platform, Vertalo, is providing cross-chain security tokens to help other brokers and investors manage portfolio data and communicate with token holders about distributions, dividends and other information. It was among the first to issue SEC-compliant security tokens, and it landed 2nd place at the SXSW Blockchain Challenge earlier this year.
Wanchain – Wanchain’s cross-chain crypto platform has undergone several upgrades in recent months. It recently started accepting transfers from the Ethereum network. And it was also the primary financial backer of the Austin Blockchain Collective, which formed ealier this year to advocated for the use of blockchain in responsible ways. Founder and CEO Jack Lu was previously co-founder and CTO of Factom.
Environmental/Cleantech
Eternal Waters Aquamation – Losing a pet is tough, and it’s something that happens everyday. Eternal Waters Aquamation provides an eco-friendly cremation services using water-based processes. It was founded by Karin and Hector Sanchez.
GrubTubs – No one wants to see food go to the landfill. GrubTubs is there to save it — and put it to use in the food chain. The startup won the city’s [Re]Verse Pitch Competition and a $10,000 prize last year for its plan to use expired canned food. It also won a WeWork Creator Award of $360,000.
John Higley of EQO – Environmental Quality Operations, which emerged from the Austin Technology Incubator, won $100,000 in non-equity cash from MassChallenge Texas in August. The company uses molecular biology to monitor zebra mussels, an invasive species that’s easily transferred from lake-to-lake by boats and clogs water production systems in lakes and endangers other wildlife. The company is also working on targeted biopesticide systems to stop invasive species. Before founding EQO, Higley was a contract scientist for Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Roman Gonzalez of Gardenio – Gonzalez founded Gardenio, a company that strives to empower people to grow their own food. Users choose what they’d like to grow and then the planters, soil and starter plants are delivered to their front door. Gardenio also provides care guides for plants while cultivating an online and in-person community for growers to swap tips. Gonzalez was part of the DivInc accelerator last year, and gave one of the year’s most entertaining pitches at the demo day event.
Shower Stream – Shower Stream is a smart shower system intended mostly for hotels and commercial buildings to cut water and energy use. The startup has been through the Austin Technology Incubator, and it was among the 84 startups accepted by MassChallenge Texas. Pitchbook shows the startup has raised money from the National Science Foundation, Texas A&M, Longhorn Energy Club and others.
Government, Advocacy & Education
AI Global – AI Global is a nonprofit that advocates for the responsible development of artificial intelligence. It was formed in June and is comprised of CognitiveScale, data.world, HyperGiant, IEEE, USAA, Saxena Foundation, Lucid AI and The University of Texas.
Care2Rock – Austin is a music city, and Care2Rock is helping ensure it will be for years to come. Its platform recruits musicians from all over the country to teach music to paying customers. In exchange for their work teaching, these teachers agree to volunteer on a long-term basis for children in foster care. Care2Rock has partnered with Texas CASA on the launch of a new program called Computers for CASA. Foster children in the program are allotted a free computer, and Care2Rock is offering free lessons to those children who have a computer.
Civitas Learning – It’s been a year of change for Civitas Learning, which uses data science to help universities ensure more students graduate. Perhaps its biggest move came in June when it acquired ClearScholar, an Indianapolis-based student engagement startup. The company is backed by more than $70 million in venture capital, including $60 million from Warburg Pincus, in addition to undisclosed impact investments from Lumina Foundation and Valhalla Charitable Foundation.
Plot – There’s more to airport data than what’s going on in the control tower. And Plot uses small IoT sensors at airport terminals to collect passenger movement data that has potential for all kinds of businesses operating at airports. It’s already working in eight airports and expects to add 22 more this year. The company has raised $775,000, and it is expected to close a round by the end of the year.
Trashbots – Trashbots founders Paul Austin, Rohit Srinivasan and Sidharth Srinivasan want to bring simpler and more cost-effective STEM education to emerging and rural markets. The team was recently highlighted as one of 15 innovators reshaping Texas by Texas Monthly magazine. The magazine noted that Rohit was 17 at the time and Sidharth was 15.
Healthcare & Medicine
Anywhere Healthcare – Anywhere Healthcare launched its new telehealth platform earlier this year. The startup provides social patient-engagement and virtual care via HIPAA-compliant videos with scheduling and billing woven in.
EverlyWell – Last year, EverlyWell landed a $1 million deal on “Shark Tank.” Since then, the company has expanded its lineup of at home health tests — and you might soon see it at brick and mortar stores. Founded by Julia Cheek, who was one of the ABJ’s profiles in power this year, the startup recently added former uShip CTO Nick Parker as its CTO. The company has raised $5 million in total from NextGen Venture Partners with Jack Novak, SoGal Ventures, Full Tilt Capital and others.
Iris Telehealth – Iris Telehealth, founded in 2013 by Tarik Shaheen, provides psychiatric care through video conferences at clinics and hospitals. The company is bootstrapped, and is bringing in millions in revenue. It has also grown to 30-plus team members and is operating in 21 states.
Medici – In June, Medici raised $22 million to double its staffing and improve its free app that connects doctors and patients. That added to the traction is has been building since emerging from stealth in 2016. The startup, and its advisors and supporters, have helped improve Texas’ telemedicine laws, and will continue that push this year. Its investors include billionaires Natie Kirsh and Ken Griffin; former Dell Chief Financial Officer Tom Meredith; and Tesla board member Antonio Gracias.
Stephen Popovich of Clairvoyant Networks – As Baby Boomers reach their later years, technologists are searching for new ways to improve care. Clairvoyant Networks has developed a new watch to help monitor location and monitor for falls. The company, now at 15 employees, has landed product awards, locked in relationships with AT&T and expanded its reach. Popovich, meanwhile, is said to be a strong communicator who is deeply passionate about helping people in their later years.
Investment
CrowdOut Capital – CrowdOut Capital, an Austin online marketplace for corporate loans, recently announced it has made $112 million in loans since launching two years ago. It hit that milestone after announcing a multi-million dollar loan to Shale Support, an oil and gas logistics company that needed capital to acquire two sand mines. CrowdOut is led by CEO and co-founder Alexander Schoenbaum and President and co-founder Brian Gilmore.
Founder Institute Austin – After launching last year, The Founder Institute Austin has gained strong traction in Austin and is now eyeing expansion into Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Their goal is to launch 100 companies across Texas each year.
Next Coast Ventures – Just a few years after launching, Next Coast Ventures has joined the ranks of Silverton Partners and Live Oak Ventures as one of Austin’s most active VC firms. It has also expanded its content in hopes of providing sound insight to aspiring founders. Recent investments include Swivel, ScaleFactor and 101 Commerce. They also had two portfolio company exits — Clarity Money and OnRamp.
Rocket Dollar – Rocket Dollar is something of a founder’s dream because, not only is it a fast-rising startup in and of itself, it helps people invest their savings into other startups and tech-enabled ventures. After launching at SXSW earlier this year, the company is already generating revenue and has launched two products.
True Wealth Ventures – Tech has a gender gap issue, and it is especially pronounced on the venture capital level — and for no good reason, given that women-led startups tend to outperform those led by men. Enter True Wealth Ventures, which earlier this year closed on a $19.1 million fund to invest in women-led startups. It has already made investments in Houston’s BrainCheck, Austin’s UnaliWear and San Diego-based Dermala.
Lifestyle
Ballogy – After launching earlier this year, Ballogy has locked in partnerships with the San Antonio Spurs, The Basketball Embassy and Hill Country Indoor to help athletes improve.
The Zebra – Last year, The Zebra landed a huge, $40 million Series B round from Accel Partners and other big names — and it brought on former KAYAK President Keith Melnick as The Zebra’s CEO. It was named one of the best workplaces by Inc. magazine. And, most recently, it announced plans move to the East Side in 2019.
FloSports – The year started with its CEO, Martin Floreani, abruptly leaving the business. But, despite that disruption, the startup has added dozens of new deals to broadcast sporting events — 150 by a recent company count. It also hired Lindsey Ross, a former ESPN manager of programming and acquisitions, as its director of rights acquisition.
Naji H. Kelley – Naji. H Kelley, founder of BLNDED Media, is helping put a spotlight on diverse entrepreneurs in Austin. This year, he has expanded his team, locked in an editorial partnership with Austin Inno and helped launch a heavily-attended Mosaic Awards, which awarded companies and people in Austin for their diversity and inclusion efforts.
TurnKey Vacation Rentals – Last spring, Turnkey Vacation Rentals landed a $31 million Series D, which brought total funding to $72 million. The vacation rental management startup, founded by T.J. Clark and John Banczak, has been featured on Netflix’s “Say Here” series. And it has been doubling revenue every year since its 2012 launch.
Marketing, Advertising and Design
The Ebco – Founded by Erin Mays and Kalyn Rozanski, The Ebco unearths trends to inspire Fortune 500 companies to explore new products. It launched its new office in Austin this year and has boosted revenues and headcount.
eRelevance Corp. – This startup has built a business around effective consumer engagement software that other businesses can easily opt into to improve their reach in e-mail and other marketing campaigns. It has been growing revenue and recently announced plans to expand its offerings to the home mortgage market. It won a Red Herring 100 North America and Global award and was listed in Entrepreneur magazine’s Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America.
Kickstand Communications – Now 5 years old, Kickstand Communications has grown rapidly and is on track for its biggest year yet — both in revenue and headcount. They also opened an office in Boston and added new clients in Europe. The company lets employees work from home two days a week and has a ‘design your own’ maternity leave program.
The Label Collective – The Label Collective landed its first non-Texas client in 2018 and grew revenues from the previous year. The company is a completely virtual, full-service creative agency specializing in branding, marketing, and creative strategy. It is owned by twin sisters Erin Pitts and Kristin Waddington.
Valerie Vacante of Collabsco – Collabsco founder Valerie Vacante has pioneered digital products and emerging technology experiences across IoT, AR, VR and beyond. She has shared her work at big conferences, including CES, SXSW, and the Play Innovation Summit. She also launched the Connected Play Landscape. She is a member of the SXSW Innovation Advisory Board, Global Mentor to MassChallenge, as well as a technology writer and speaker.
Nonprofit
AI Global – AI Global is a nonprofit that advocates for the responsible development of artificial intelligence. It was formed in June and is comprised of CognitiveScale, data.world, HyperGiant, IEEE, USAA, Saxena Foundation, Lucid AI and The University of Texas.
Austin Tech Alliance – This organization has been at the forefront of getting Austin’s tech community to engage with politics. It has set up voter registration training, helped set up civic hacking events and advanced the city’s smart city goals.
DivInc – Since its launch, DivInc has been a powerful resource for diverse founders. It has helped launch 36 companies and entrepreneurs. Those companies have gone on to create more than 100 jobs. Their work is helping more diverse founders not only launch businesses, but get featured on panels and in articles.
MassChallenge Texas – After launching last fall, MassChallenge Texas has helped 84 startups get off the ground or improve their business plans. It also handed out $500,000 in non-equity awards to eight companies — most of which are Austin-based.
Survive2Thrive – The Survive2Thrive Foundation is ran by Courtney Santana, a prominent woman CEO. The startup makes survivor-based software solutions and helps entrepreneurs from the domestic violence survivor community build confidence and independence.